Monday, July 9, 2012

Pillbag Pro Tip: Zipper Management

I’m back from our week at the beach! I meant to put up an
“Out to Lunch” post the Friday before we left, but I guess I was just too anxious to start my vacation. We
had a wonderful time with the Gorman family – and thoroughly enjoyed the sun
and surf. It was a hot one, but the beach was cool and breezy. My in-laws have
always embraced my photosensitivity, and each year, they seem to come up with a
bigger and better solution for providing shade at the beach. We’ve now
graduated to a big, blue tent – providing relief from the sun for the whole family. You can
fit nearly 10 chairs underneath that tent if you had to – but you'll almost always find mine right in the center!

As I’ve mentioned before – I’m not as photosensitive as I
used to be (thank goodness!), so I spent plenty of time in the ocean with the
girls. This is the first summer at the beach that I’ve had Raynaud’s, and I can
assure you, it was in full force. After about 10 minutes in deep water, my
fingers were as white and numb as can be.
Of course, with such high air temperatures, they thawed quickly once I
was out of the water for a few minutes, but it’s still a crazy phenomenon. Needless to say, Bernie seems to prefer the sand, so I manned the shore
most of the time while Johnny took the plunge with Deirdre.

And naps were long and plentiful while we were there – so I’m no
worse for wear upon my return. A successful vacation for sure!

Of course, I took my handy-dandy pillfold along for the trip
(the Bordeaux,
if you were wondering!), and I decided to take a picture of it mid week to
demonstrate what I’ll call a Pillbag Pro
Tip – tips on how to maximize Pillbag usage and minimize stress and exertion on your
joints. Here’s what my bag looked like
by Wednesday mid-day:

If you notice – the zipper for Wednesday is left halfway
open. When I’d open the pouch to get out my morning pills, I just left the
zipper in the middle with the pouch open. That way, when I went to take my
evening pills, I just had to unzip the pouch the rest of the way to expose my
evening pills. What’s more, once I took my evening pills, I left the zipper to
the far right (with empty pouches open), so that it’s ready for me to fill the
following week. As you can see, the zippers from the Sunday, Monday, and
Tuesday pouches are also pulled to the right. See how the pouches are left
open? Instant time saver and joint reliever!

4 comments:

Hello, My name is Amelia. Im a 20 year old female and I'm truly desperate for help. For about the past 8 months I have been inceredibly ill. It started as the Herpes Zoster virus in my left ear in OCT 2011. I had blisters in my eardrum,around my scalp on my face. Serve neck pain and shoulder pain, nausea, and extreme fatigue. So I took a week off from work and went back to feeling normal after prediszone and acylcavair. So since then Ive had 6 outbreaks in both ears and my orignal Ent doctor that diagnosed me with the zoster told me he didnt know what else to do after continueally returning asking for help. Well the last time about 3 months ago I took a turn for the worse. Im still suffering and trying to go from doctor to doctor but still no answers. Im have extreme fatigue, Fever, Dizzyness, Migranes, neck and shoulder pain, Really bad in the back of the head (cranial nerve) joint pain facial pain. I throw up everynight mostly out of sleep, I have tremmors, sezuires, face pain, red bumps and rashes on my face hair line, chest, legs, breast's stomach. Some days are worse than others but im starting to feel crazy, having serve anxiety and depressed too. I cant work. Its put major stress on my relationship. I get sweats, chills, fever, the rash across my nose, dry eyes. Pretty much I feel like I have no hope and im sitting her dying. My whole life is nothing but pain and misery now. MY blood test are coming back fine. Any idea on where to go from here? What are your opinions? Please im seriously desperate and am at my last straw. How do I get help?? Look forward to hearing from you.

Hi Sarah- Question about the pill bags. I LOVE them and going to order one because it beats my ugly pill box by a mile! Being on 20 some pills a day- who wouldn't love your special pretty pillfold. My question is what do you do with your pills that you take 3 times per day or more because it looks like all of the bags only have two compartments for each day unless you want to carry the separate pill bag. I thought maybe I could order the pill bag and then if you had a smaller one with just 1 compartment for each day that I could take that one to work- or one with 8 (daily noon meds plus one for pain meds or emergency meds). Just a thought as you continue to develop them hopefully but any suggestions as I order would be great. Can't wait to get one.

Amelia- I'm so sorry you're going through this- you can email me at mysunshineevie@gmail.com if you want to talk more.

Amelia - Sorry for the delay in responding...I'm always forgetting to check my comments. My apologies! I'm sorry you're having such a tough time right now. I'm sure you feel like every single part of your body is being affected. I remember that feeling well! And I'm sure you feel lost being in between doctors, but I think that's your best bet right now. If I were in your shoes, I would immediately get in to see a doctor (maybe your ENT, maybe one that you've seen most frequently or recently), and not leave until I had answers. Now - note - the answers you get might not be the ones you want or are expecting. Again, in my experience, when I am in the midst of a flare, my doctor can't promise that the symptoms are going to go away...but he CAN offer me the following: 1) A plan to address all symptoms, prioritized by severity. (You might have to choose what s/he treats you for in the beginning!)2) A plan to minimize the remaining symptoms/side-effects you're experiencing that aren't specifically being addressed by treatment, even if it's just in the short term (i.e. pain relievers, prednisone, etc.)3) An outline of the expectations of treatment, such as, if you start prescription A, when should you see results and what will those results look like?, or, if you don't experience said results, should you call the doctor's office/what are you to do/how can you get through until the next appointment? 4) Lastly, I always ask for a long-term plan - so that I know that my doctor understands that the current state of pain, sleeplessness, fever, etc. etc. that I'm currently experiencing isn't acceptable and that I'm looking to him to address the issues aggressively and without delay. I hope that all makes sense - and I wish you well. Keep me posted!!

To MySunShineEvie: So glad you like the idea of the pill bags! You're not alone in requesting both a three-a-day fold and a mini-fold, both of which are on the design boards for future versions of the bags. It might be some time, however, as I have to walk before I run! That said, I've had several people utilize the empty, unlabeled, eighth pouch at the bottom of the Pillfold for their middle of the day doses. Or maybe the pillpouch could help in this instance. Not sure how many different prescriptions you take at noon, but maybe cinching only those pill containers in a pillpouch and popping them in your purse would work. The bags do travel well - so hopefully, some combination will fit the bill! Thanks again and I'll look forward to your order.